Remember your loved ones

Leo Bennette Huckabee III (1942 - 2020)

Online memorial was created by bryany on 10-03-2020

This memorial website was created in the memory of our loved one, Leo Huckabee III, 77, born in 1942 and passed away in 2020. We will remember him forever.

http://www.lastingmemories.com/leo-bennette-huckabee-iii

Claire Patricia Rogus (1942 - 2020)

Online memorial was created by Michael on 10-02-2020

Claire Patricia Rogus

My mom led an interesting life. I’m going to try to tell these stories as I have heard many times. She left a basic outline of 20 points; these are the poignant times of her life.

My mom’s first memory was of her own mother’s funeral. She was only 3 years old. My mom was raised by her father, with a lot of help from his family. She spent a lot of time with her grandmother, Aunt Marion, Aunt Stella and Aunt Francis. They were Italian and instilled strong family values and a great pride of being Italian American.

On a trip to the lake with her dad and family friend she had her after death experience. My mom was 12 and the family friend was 14. My mom was a good swimmer but when the other girl realized how deep the water was, she freaked out and started climbing on top of my mom. After a struggle, my mom sunk to the bottom of the lake. She saw the pearly gates and swam toward the light. It seemed wonderful there, but she got the feeling that it wasn’t her time and she needed to go back. My grandfather was a firefighter and strong. He dove under and brought her up to the boat and saved her life. Afterwards, she remembers he made her swim to a rock 10 feet away so she wouldn’t be afraid of the water. She did it and she wasn’t afraid of the water. She loved to swim and go to the beach.

My mom loved all of her cousin’s but had the most fun with her cousin Louise. I’ve heard they would get into trouble occasionally, although no one ever told me what they did.

My mom loved school; she went to St. Mary’s High School in Jersey City. She would get up in front of the class and do Elvis impressions when the teacher was out of the room. She went on to receive her bachelor’s degree from Jersey City State College and her New Jersey State Teaching Credential.

She spent one summer at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. She loved acting and singing. She sang her entire life. She especially loved singing in church. She was a member of the St. Greggory’s Church Choir for many years. She sang loud and proud. She had a beautiful voice.

She spent the next summer in Europe with a girlfriend. They had a great time visiting England, France and Italy. Her favorite parts of her trip were trying to distract the Queen’s Guards in front of Buckingham Palace and the gondola ride in the Venice Canal.

My mom taught art at St. Dominic’s High School. She loved it! She would show me the pictures she kept from her class field trips. She took her students to different art museums and was so young she looked like she was a student too.

She went to San Francisco with the same friend for a long weekend. My mom loved to dance and went to the nightclubs in New York every weekend with her friends. They decided to check out The Sargent Pepper’s Night Club in San Francisco. That’s where she met my dad, Bruce Hanchett.

They fell in love. At first, they had a long-distance relationship. They talked on the phone and my dad wrote my mom romantic letters. They got engaged and my mom moved from New Jersey to California. They were married on November 30th, 1968. She was a housewife and a mom. She had a small daycare business so she could be home with Valerie, Michael and I. She would have 3 or 4 other kids come home with us after school every day. It was fun, we always had a lot of kids at the house to play with. My mom would always take us all to fun places when we didn’t have school. She would pile 7 kids in the car (It was the 70’s) and we would go to the beach, swimming lessons, parks, The Exploratorium and museums. As the years went by, it was apparent that my mom and dad were growing apart; it didn’t work out with my parents and they divorced in 1983.

After the divorce mom needed to go back to work. She didn’t have a teaching credential in California, so she started looking for other jobs. She got a job selling life Insurance for Transamerica. She actually crushed it in sales. She was so warm and sweet and obviously on the up and up. People liked her and trusted her. She was top saleswomen a lot of the time. As busy as she was as a single, working mom, I think she really loved having a job again.

One afternoon, on her way to an insurance appointment she was driving her old Oldsmobile up Webster Street in the city. It was a very steep hill and the car just wasn’t going up the hill. She had her foot all the way on the gas pedal and it just barely moved. She was so afraid that the car would start rolling backward. When she looked in her rear-view mirror, she saw a VW Bug with a young couple in the car. She locked eyes with the girl in the passenger seat. The girl hopped out and walked toward her car, she had a nice face and a sweet smile. She pushed my mom’s car about 40 feet to the top of the hill. When my mom looked back to thank her, the girl was gone. She realized later that the girl was her guardian angel, Penelope.

My mom had met Joe Rogus when I was a baby. Joe was an acquaintance of my dad’s. They had dinner with Joe and his ex-wife once. After the divorce their paths crossed again. They fell in love and got married in 1985. We had a blended family and although Joe lived with us, we spent a lot of time with Joe’s kids: Ben, Sarah, Josh and Mary. We would all go on summer camping trips together. Joe had a camper and loved the outdoors. Joe also had a strong faith and my mom and Joe would go to Mary’s Treasures meetings together. They had so much in common and were very happy together. He always called her, “Mama”.

My mom took a trip to Medjugorje in 1995 with some friends from Church. That trip brought her even closer to God and she experienced a miracle there. She saw the spinning of the sun, which is similar to what the people in Fatima saw on the last day that the Virgin Mary visited the children there.

Not too long after coming home from Medjugorje there was a fire at the house next door. I’m not sure why this was such an important event that my mom bothered to list it, but there was one funny part. It was in the middle of the night and Joe had worked overtime the night before and was passed out after 3 8-hour shifts in a row. Joe slept in the nude. When they noticed the fire, Joe jumped into action! He ran outside and started hosing off the neighbor’s house from our back yard. The fire department was there working on it from their end. They knew Joe, as fellow San Mateo County first responders. Once things calmed down, they laughed and said, “OK Joe, you can go back inside now.” Joe wondered what the laughter was about until he looked down and realized he had no clothes on.

My mom and Joe continued to be involved in the church and became Dominican’s. They also loved Art and Poetry. My mom got back into oil painting and made several large religious works of art. Joe wrote beautiful poetry.

Joe and Claire bravely fought cancer at the same time. I remember this time as the time where our entire family really came together. Our efforts resulted in success as both were safely in remission after surgery, chemo and radiation treatments were complete.

My mom loved her family more than anything and over the next few years Colleen, Andrew and Ian were born. My mom loved taking care of the babies and Mom and Joe watched the kid’s alternate days during the week so Val and I could go back to work. I loved the days when Mom and Joe stayed with Ian at our place in San Francisco. It was so nice to come home and hear about all of the fun things they did that day. Sometimes they would stay for dinner or some nights we’d all go out to eat at a restaurant in Noe Valley.

5 years later Joe found out his cancer had returned; the doctors gave him 19 months to live. My mom and Joe made every daycount and went on an Alaskan Cruise together. Years later, my mom wrote a book titled, “19 Months to Live” about these final months that they shared.

Joe passed in 2006, with my mom by his side the entire time. My dad, Bruce, had passed the year prior. My mom found herself a double widow.

After Joe’s passing Mike and Shalease moved into her house. It made her feel so much better to have them there, she did not want to live there alone. Vince and Dante were born, and they had a full house and my mom loved it. The time she spent with Michael and his family on Seville was a very happy time for her. We all loved going there for Thanksgiving. Every one of us loves grandma’s turkey and stuffing! She made it best!

My mom started her senior living years at Brookdale in Redwood City. She made a lot of great friends there. She had a passion for politics and stood by her beliefs. She also taught a bible study class there.

Valerie, Mike and I were very grateful to have those last days with her. She was such an amazing woman and mother and she will be missed so very much. She told us once that she dreamt that she was in heaven and all of us were babies (Kevin, Val, Colleen, Andrew, Micheal, Shalease, Vince, Dante, Jason, Louise, Ian, and Luke). We were all babies and crawling all over and around her. That was her heaven. I believe I will see her there someday.

CLAIRE PATRICIA ROGUS was born in Jersey City, NJ on December 30, 1942. She was an artist, a teacher and an incredible mother and grandmother. Claire leaves behind a large and loving family; daughter, Louise and her husband, Jason Kolesnikow and grandsons, Ian and Luke; daughter, Valerie and her husband, Kevin Abbey and grandchildren, Colleen and Andrew; son, Michael Hanchett and his wife, Shalease and grandsons, Vince and Dante. Claire died peacefully with her children by her side. Claire was a woman of great faith and a deep love for her family. She was positive and kind and brought joy to everyone that knew her.

Written by Louise Kolesnikow

http://www.lastingmemories.com/claire-patricia-rogus

John Tinoco Duran (1942 - 2020)

Online memorial was created by Stephanie on 10-02-2020

This memorial website was created in the memory of our loved one, John Duran, 77, born on October 28th, 1942 and passed away on September 27th, 2020. We will remember him forever.

http://www.lastingmemories.com/john-tinoco-duran

Charles William Deutschman (1947 - 2020)

Online memorial was created by Sophia on 10-02-2020

This memorial website was created in the memory of our loved one, Charles Deutschman, 72, born on November 21st, 1947 and passed away on August 29th, 2020. We will remember him forever.

http://www.lastingmemories.com/charles-william-deutschman

Robert William Peters (1940 - 2020)

Online memorial was created by Carolyn on 10-02-2020

This memorial website was created in the memory of our loved one, Robert Peters, 80, born on January 5th, 1940 and passed away on September 22nd, 2020. We will remember him forever.

http://www.lastingmemories.com/robert-william-peters

Nancy Jane (Wintzer) Lisa (1931 - 2020)

Online memorial was created by Nancy on 10-02-2020

This memorial website was created in the memory of our loved one, Nancy Lisa, 89, born on March 8th, 1931 and passed away on September 29th, 2020. We will remember her forever.

http://www.lastingmemories.com/nancy-jane-wintzer-lisa

Marc Lucio (1971 - 2020)

Online memorial was created by Liza on 10-02-2020

This memorial website was created in the memory of our loved one, Marc Lucio, 49, born on May 12th, 1971 and passed away on September 22nd, 2020. We will remember him forever.

http://www.lastingmemories.com/marc-lucio

Darleen Monica Worth (1934 - 2020)

Online memorial was created by Patty on 10-02-2020

This memorial website was created in the memory of our loved one, Darleen Worth, 86, born in January 1934 and passed away in September 2020. We will remember her forever.

http://www.lastingmemories.com/darleen-monica-worth

Margaret M. Di Bari

Online memorial was created by Berge Pappas Smith on 10-02-2020

This memorial website was created in the memory of our loved one, Margaret Di Bari. We will remember her forever.

http://www.lastingmemories.com/margaret-m-di-bari

Carol Rosner

Online memorial was created by Jake on 10-02-2020

This memorial website was created in the memory of our loved one, Carol Rosner. We will remember her forever.

http://www.lastingmemories.com/carol-rosner

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